


my sister's keeper

by everyperfectsummer



Category: DC's Legends of Tomorrow (TV), The Flash (TV 2014)
Genre: Canonical Child Abuse, M/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-04-24
Updated: 2017-04-24
Packaged: 2018-10-23 16:02:47
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 815
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/10722585
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/everyperfectsummer/pseuds/everyperfectsummer
Summary: Because blood is not obligation, and neither is love.





	my sister's keeper

**Author's Note:**

> I feel really nervous about this so please tell me what you think?

They’re in the planning stages of a job when a newbie nervously brings up the idea of getting caught. 

 

Tired of giving the exact same speech, Len nevertheless reassures him. “You get caught, you’re the responsibility of everyone who gets out, and vice versa.” He starts rattling off the usual spiel, facts and figures of who’ll pay whom what, when he realizes that Mick’s looking at him strangely. 

 

A few hours later, when the last of their crew is headed out the door, he turns to Mick. “You ok?”

 

Mick, still with that strange look in his eyes, ignores the question. “You always tell the newbies they’re our responsibility and vice versa.”

 

Len nods. “Yes.”

 

Mick nods back, looking thoughtful. Then, in a complete change of subject, he says “You’re basically raising Lisa.”

 

“Yes,” Len says, careful not to say it too cautiously, because Mick’s tone is sending off all kinds of alarm bells even if his words aren’t. “What about it?”

 

“You know you don’t have to, right?”

 

_ What _ . “If you’re trying to say that it’s you or Lisa, then get the  _ fuck _ out,” he snarls.

 

He didn’t expect this from Mick, of all people. Of one of the two people he thought he could trust.

 

Mick lifts his hands, clearly trying to seem reassuring, but all he does is remind Len of how much bigger Mick is, and how close they’re standing.

 

“That’s not what I meant. Not at all, Len.”

 

Len relaxes slightly, but not too much. Not that staying on guard could stop Mick from whatever emotional or physical damage he might try to inflict, but...wariness makes him feel safer, even if it doesn’t help. So he waits, silent, as Mick thinks over his next words.

 

“You love Lisa. And you love me.” Len opens his mouth to protest, and Mick says, “And we love you too. But. That doesn’t mean we’re your responsibility.”

 

He stares at Mick, bemused and still a little too scared to say what he’s thinking, which is  _ Of course it does. _ Mick reads the answer in his face anyway.

 

“You’re always jumping to put yourself between her and Lewis, me and whoever the fuck tries to mess, and that’s fine, if that’s a choice you make, but it’s not something you  _ have _ to do.”

 

Len tries to mask the confusion he’s feeling. “What’re you trying to say?”

 

“I’m saying that if you owe someone for something, you try and pay them back. Because that debt is your responsibility. Love isn’t -- it’s not owing.” Mick drags a hand down his face. “I’m saying this all wrong. But. The people on your crew, you have to protect them because that’s how a crew works. Because that’s what you meant when you signed up. You didn’t sign up to be a brother, or -- well, you did sign up to be my partner, but. If you want to raise Lisa, go ahead! Raise Lisa. But don’t do it because you think you have to, or because no one else will, or because you’re her brother. Fuck the societal ideal the familial ties create obligation.”

 

Mick lifts his hand to the back of his neck, rubbing it tensely. “I guess what I mean is. Someone does you a favor? You owe them. Someone happens to be related to you? Someone’s your boyfriend? Blood, boyfriends, fuck both of those, you don’t owe them shit.”

 

There’s a pause as they both digest Mick’s words. “I don’t have to raise Lisa,” Len says, slowly, feeling like something in the foundation of his worldview has cracked.

 

“I’m not saying you shouldn’t!” Mick says, hastily. “Just. If you’re gonna be raising her, raise her because you want to. Not because you think you have to.”

 

Len breaks eye contact with Mick. “I need to go for a walk.”

 

Mick backs up to let Len walk past him to the door. Len walks, and keeps walking, until he’s at a playground, empty of kids at this time of night. He crouches to sit in one of the swings, and absently swings back and forth for hours.

 

The next day, he goes and walks Lisa home from school, asking her about her day and her friends and her hobbies.  Because he loves her. Because he doesn’t have to, and wants to, anyway.

 

It’s the same thing he’s done for the past few years, but it’s something he’s never done before. Because today is the first day of his life that he doesn’t  _ have to _ take care of Lisa. He does, anyway.

 

“You ok, dude?” she says, after giving him the day’s gossip. “You’re acting kind of weird.”

 

He smiles at her and means it.

 

Blood is not obligation, and neither is love. “Just having a good day, that’s all,” he says, and she smiles back at him.

 

The two of them walk, hand in hand, towards home.

**Author's Note:**

> This is inspired by a recent conversation I had with a friend. I've endangered myself to protect others in the past because I felt like I was supposed to, and it. Meant a lot? To think of it as something I could do if I chose, not something that the world expected of me.
> 
> Tldr: don't set yourself on fire to keep others warm unless you want to, unless you chose to.


End file.
